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Chapter 235: The Weight of Darkness
Minjun’s breath caught in the dressing room as Junho’s voice reached him. His chest tightened, and he felt his heart hammering against his ribs. Junho’s face was ashen, his eyes wavering like shadows reflected in a mirror. Minjun reacted to his voice—his pulse quickened, his mouth went dry, and he struggled to swallow.
“W-what?” Minjun’s voice trembled. It sounded like leaves rustling in the wind. His heart pounded like a wave overwhelming everything in its path.
Junho released his grip on Minjun’s wrist, his voice dropping lower. In the dim set, it sounded even more hollow. “Last night… did you see what you got?”
Minjun’s chest sank again. The “last night” Junho meant wasn’t the night he’d received the contract. It was something after that. His heart raced, threatening to consume him entirely. Cold sweat trickled down his back in the chill of the dressing room.
“See what?” Minjun asked again, his voice shaking. His hands trembled as if they’d been plunged into freezing water.
Junho met his eyes. His gaze wavered, darkened as if swallowed by shadow. “The contract… did you receive it?” His voice was low, his lips dry as straw.
“Y-yes. I got it.” Minjun’s voice cracked. His hands felt heavy, waterlogged.
Junho’s eyes searched his. They were clouded like a rain-soaked window. “How… how does it look to you?” His voice was barely a whisper, faint as moonlight at night.
Minjun’s heart raced wildly. It thundered like a storm at sea, threatening to drown him.
“W-what do you mean?” Minjun’s voice wavered. It sounded like rustling leaves.
Junho stared at him. His eyes were dark, consumed by shadow. “It’s… a serious problem for us.” His words crashed like thunder in a storm.
Minjun’s pulse hammered harder, like waves crashing against rock.
“What kind of problem?” His voice came out hoarse, like dry straw.
Junho’s gaze never left his. “That contract… it’s a major threat to us.”
“A threat to what?” Minjun pressed, his trembling voice barely audible.
“To everything.” Junho’s voice dropped to almost nothing. “Everything about us.”
“Everything?” Minjun repeated. The word felt hollow in his mouth.
“Our freedom. Our lives. Everything.” Junho’s eyes were drowning in darkness. “It controls us, Minjun. Completely.”
Minjun felt the room spin. The dressing room walls seemed to close in, suffocating him. His heart wouldn’t stop its frantic beating—a wild, uncontrollable rhythm that matched the panic rising in his chest.
“What do you mean, controls us?” His voice cracked on the last word.
Junho took a step closer, and in the shadows of the set, his face looked almost unrecognizable. “It destroys us, Minjun. Completely. Our freedom, our lives—everything we are.”
The weight of those words settled over Minjun like darkness itself. He couldn’t breathe. Couldn’t think. All he could feel was his heart, pounding like it might tear through his chest.
“What do we do?” The question escaped him, desperate and small.
“We have to stop it.” Junho’s voice was resolute, cutting through the darkness like a blade. “We have to stop that contract.”
“But how?” Minjun’s eyes searched his. “How do we stop something like this?”
Junho didn’t answer immediately. He just stared at Minjun, his eyes reflecting something Minjun couldn’t quite name—fear, determination, or perhaps something far darker.
“We find a way,” Junho finally said. “Because if we don’t, it’s over for both of us.”
The silence that followed was suffocating. In that moment, in the dim light of the dressing room, Minjun understood: their world had just shifted on its axis. Everything had changed. And there was no going back.